In one of the opening scenes of the documentary “The Muslims Are Coming!” Negin Farsad is promoting a comedy gig outside a Columbus, Ga., gun show.

Foisting an informational card into the hand of a man who has just exited the gun show and is eyeing Farsad suspiciously, she promises that there’s going to be “a bunch of Muslims on stage, but they’re hilarious.”

The resulting film will be shown at Illinois College on March 14, with Farsad appearing in person (see accompanying information for details).

Farsad, who was born in Connecticut and is of Iranian descent, and her fellow comics in the film employed a number of street actions — “Ask A Muslim A Question” and “Bowling With A Muslim,” for example — to disarm the uninitiated or those with preconceived thoughts about Islam.

And the notion that there are throngs of people sitting around hating Muslims or that Sharia law is right around the corner?

Farsad found that not to be the case.

“I go into (these gatherings) with an open mind,” Farsad said. “I want to have a conversation. We’re not teaching people about Islam. We’re not trying to convert anyone. We want to teach them that Muslims aren’t terrible people.”

A former public policy analyst for New York City, Farsad had formerly worked with Dean Obeidallah, also one of the film’s director and a comedian, on Comedy Central’s “The Watch List.”

Both had noted, with President Barack Obama’s election in 2008 and the Ground Zero mosque controversy, an uptick in Islamaphobia and soon hatched the idea for the tour.

“Suddenly, being a Muslim became an accusation,” Farsad said during a recent phone interview. “(For this documentary) we wanted to create a counternarrative, and stand-up is really the only activist option we had.”

‘Try to have a conversation’

The comedians toured the South, including places like Murfreesboro, Tenn., where they walked into another mosque controversy, with detractors believing it would be a front for “jihadist activity.” The group winds up in the Southwest, along the way intentionally avoiding large Muslim population centers. (One of the comedians joked that it would “a one-way trip.”)

People were less confrontational, but inquisitive on issues like why Muslims didn’t speak up against extremists post-9/11, a perception Farsad and others tried to address.

In one memorable scene from the documentary, Farsad and Obeidallah, a former attorney, debate New Testament scripture with a representative from the American Family Association, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled “a hate group.”

While several talking heads in the documentary admitted that Muslims often present themselves as an exclusive community, there were few taboo subjects for Farsad’s stand-up. While visiting a cousin in Iran, Farsad joked about whether she should hide “all the freedoms I enjoy like boys, alcohol and peaceable assembly.”

Page 2 of 2 - Comedians John Stewart, Janeane Garofalo, Lewis Black and Colin Quinn lend commentary and perspective to the film, as do Soledad O’Brien and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress.

Matthew Simpson, a senior sociology major from Charleston, said he hopes Farsad’s appearance will be “a wake-up call” for the Illinois College campus.

“We really wanted to expose students to these issues, to encourage them to talk and converse about Islam and realize that not all stereotypes of Muslims are true,” Simpson said.

“If you try to have a conversation,” added Farsad, “and treat people with love and hilarity, it will be reciprocated.”